Are Natural Knowledges and Sciences a Means of Becoming Wise?
Key Concept: A person who has acknowledged the Divine in faith and life may become both spiritual and wise by means of knowledges and sciences (Heaven and Hell 356).
In respect to those that have acquired intelligence and wisdom through knowledge and science, who are such as have applied all things to the use of life, and have also acknowledged the Divine, loved the Word, and lived a spiritual moral life…to such the sciences have served as a means of becoming wise, and also of corroborating the things pertaining to faith…. [3] All this makes clear that it is by means of knowledges and sciences that man is made spiritual, also that these are the means of becoming wise, but only with those who have acknowledged the Divine in faith and life. Such also before others are accepted in heaven, and are among those there who are at the center…because they are in light more than others (Heaven and Hell 356:1,3).
It is clear that even though one lives well he cannot come into heaven until he is in truths. On this account there are places of instruction for those who are to come into heaven, because no one can come thither until he has been instructed…. [3] To serve the Lord is to be in truths, and to act sincerely and justly in everything; for then the principles of truth, sincerity, and justice, that are with man, serve the Lord. Again, through these, but not through worship alone, a man after his life in the world can be in heaven, for worship without these, consequently without truths, is empty worship, into which no influx enters (Apocalypse Explained 478:2-3).
He therefore who assumes as a principle that nothing is to be believed until it is seen and understood, can never believe, because spiritual and celestial things cannot be seen with the eyes, or conceived by the imagination. But the true order is for man to be wise from the Lord, that is, from the Word, and then all things follow, and he is also enlightened in matters of reason and of science. For it is by no means forbidden to learn the sciences, since they are useful for his life and delightful; nor is he who is in faith prohibited from thinking and speaking as do the learned of the world; but it must be from this principle to believe the Word of the Lord, and, so far as possible, confirm spiritual and celestial truths by natural truths, in terms familiar to the learned world. Thus the starting point must be the Lord and not himself; for the former is life, but the latter is death (Arcana Coelestia 129).
Every cupidity that a man favors forms the life of his will, and every principle or persuasion of falsity forms the life of his understanding…. Every man thus forms for himself as it were a soul, and such after death does his life become. Nothing therefore is of more importance to a man than to know what is true. When he knows what is true, and knows it so well that it cannot be perverted, then it cannot be so much immersed in cupidities and have such deadly effect. What should a man have more at heart than his life to eternity? If in the life of the body he destroys his soul, does he not destroy it to eternity? (Arcana Coelestia 794:2)
From the things that exist in the natural world the things of the spiritual world can be seen as in a mirror (Heaven and Hell 56e).
Are Natural Knowledges and Sciences a Means of Becoming Wise?
Key Concept: A person who has acknowledged the Divine in faith and life may become both spiritual and wise by means of knowledges and sciences (Heaven and Hell 356).
In respect to those that have acquired intelligence and wisdom through knowledge and science, who are such as have applied all things to the use of life, and have also acknowledged the Divine, loved the Word, and lived a spiritual moral life…to such the sciences have served as a means of becoming wise, and also of corroborating the things pertaining to faith…. [3] All this makes clear that it is by means of knowledges and sciences that man is made spiritual, also that these are the means of becoming wise, but only with those who have acknowledged the Divine in faith and life. Such also before others are accepted in heaven, and are among those there who are at the center…because they are in light more than others (Heaven and Hell 356:1,3).
It is clear that even though one lives well he cannot come into heaven until he is in truths. On this account there are places of instruction for those who are to come into heaven, because no one can come thither until he has been instructed…. [3] To serve the Lord is to be in truths, and to act sincerely and justly in everything; for then the principles of truth, sincerity, and justice, that are with man, serve the Lord. Again, through these, but not through worship alone, a man after his life in the world can be in heaven, for worship without these, consequently without truths, is empty worship, into which no influx enters (Apocalypse Explained 478:2-3).
He therefore who assumes as a principle that nothing is to be believed until it is seen and understood, can never believe, because spiritual and celestial things cannot be seen with the eyes, or conceived by the imagination. But the true order is for man to be wise from the Lord, that is, from the Word, and then all things follow, and he is also enlightened in matters of reason and of science. For it is by no means forbidden to learn the sciences, since they are useful for his life and delightful; nor is he who is in faith prohibited from thinking and speaking as do the learned of the world; but it must be from this principle to believe the Word of the Lord, and, so far as possible, confirm spiritual and celestial truths by natural truths, in terms familiar to the learned world. Thus the starting point must be the Lord and not himself; for the former is life, but the latter is death (Arcana Coelestia 129).
Every cupidity that a man favors forms the life of his will, and every principle or persuasion of falsity forms the life of his understanding…. Every man thus forms for himself as it were a soul, and such after death does his life become. Nothing therefore is of more importance to a man than to know what is true. When he knows what is true, and knows it so well that it cannot be perverted, then it cannot be so much immersed in cupidities and have such deadly effect. What should a man have more at heart than his life to eternity? If in the life of the body he destroys his soul, does he not destroy it to eternity? (Arcana Coelestia 794:2)
From the things that exist in the natural world the things of the spiritual world can be seen as in a mirror (Heaven and Hell 56e).
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